You are here

Puente de Amigos Committee

Welcome

Our sister relationship with Cuba Yearly Meeting is an important part of the religious life of New England Yearly Meeting, a ministry to which we feel corporately called. Cuban Quakers are our dear sisters and brothers, despite differences in culture, language, political and economic systems.

Puente de Amigos (Bridge of Friends) Committee was formed in 1991 to foster this spiritual relationship, based on mutual respect and equality. Its primary task is to arrange for exchanges of religious visitors between the two yearly meetings. Please let us know if you are interested in being part of our sister relationship with Cuban Friends.

Purpose & Procedures

Purposes

Committee Purpose:

Our sister relationship with Cuba Yearly Meeting is an important part of the religious life of New England Yearly Meeting, a ministry to which we feel corporately called. Cuban Quakers are our dear sisters and brothers, despite differences in culture, language, and political and economic systems. Puente de Amigos (Bridge of Friends) Committee was established by New England Yearly Meeting in 1991 to foster this spiritual relationship, based on mutual respect and equality. Its primary task is to arrange for exchanges of religious visitors between the two yearly meetings. To encourage closer relationships some monthly meetings in Cuba Yearly Meeting have been paired with sister meetings in New England Yearly Meeting.

Procedures

Committee Procedures:

The committee plans visits by New England Friends to Cuba and invites Cuba Yearly Meeting to send visitors to New England Yearly Meeting Sessions. It provides Spanish interpretation at NEYM Sessions. When possible, it also invites Cuban Friends who are in the United States on other business to visit New England. It arranges for Cuban travelers to visit local meetings and other Friends activities. The committee maintains good communication and cooperation with other Friends organizations that are interested in Cuban Friends. It raises funds to cover costs involved in religious visitation between our two yearly meetings, and for material assistance such as medicine, eyeglasses, and other needs identified by Cuban Friends. Puente de Amigos has an Executive Committee that makes needed decisions between committee meetings. There is also an Orientation and Discernment Committee that works with Friends interested in travel to Cuba and brings recommendations to the full committee for the people to be sent to Cuba as representative of New England Yearly Meeting. The committee maintains close cooperation with the New England Friends United Meeting Committee, the New England Friends World Committee for Consultation Committee and New England Yearly Meeting Ministry & Counsel. The full committee meets for business approximately six times during the year, including meetings at Yearly Meeting Sessions and sometimes at Committee Days, and organizes retreats from time to time. Our programmed and unprogrammed worship may include singing, Bible reading, and vocal prayer as we invite God’s presence to guide us. Intervisitation pushes us to seek guidance in the traditions of elders and of travel in the ministry, and to wrestle with emotional topics such as the balance between truth-speaking and confidentiality, and the implications of our material wealth for our relationship to beloved Friends who have less economic resources. Interested Friends are always welcome to attend committee meetings, whether or not they speak Spanish.